IAS-PHYS Fundamental Physics Seminar Series - Direct Gravitational Detection of Dark Matter

Abstract
The only known interaction between dark matter and the standard model is gravitational, making existing and upcoming gravitational wave experiments ideal as probes to directly detect dark matter. The speaker argues that pulsar timing arrays (PTAs) and gravitational wave detectors can serve as valuable tools in the detection of dark matter. Dark matter substructure within the Milky Way Galaxy can induce gravitational pulls on pulsars, leading to observable deviations in pulsar timings. The speaker will demonstrate that dark matter models predicting enhanced power on small scales (<pc) are potentially within the reach of future PTA experiments, such as the Square Kilometer Array (SKA). This includes a class of post-inflationary QCD axion models known as axion miniclusters. He will also discuss pipelines for searching for dark matter signals in PTA datasets and recent results from the 15-year data release of the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav), which has reported evidence of a stochastic gravitational background. Furthermore, dark matter particles with a mass on the kilogram scale can also produce signals in laser interferometry-based gravitational wave experiments. The speaker will discuss the signals and detection prospects from current and future gravitational wave experiments, such as LIGO and the Einstein Telescope.